Hi Everyone,
Here is the email I received this week from Utah State University:
When you think about food storage, you might picture a large walk-in pantry with immaculately stacked mason jars and carefully curated collections of canned goods. But for most people, this type of food storage isn’t always attainable. Instead, here are some quick and easy ways to build a food storage that can be used when an emergency arises.
Slowly buy extra food each week or month. Set aside part of your grocery budget for food storage. Even an extra $20-$50 a month will go a long way.
Prioritize simple, ready-to-eat foods. Stock up on foods that you and your family enjoy. Choose items that are high in calories and good nutrition.
Remember the manual can opener and scissors. What good is stored food if you can’t easily access it?
Avoid storing foods that make you thirsty. Choose salt-free crackers, whole-grain cereals, and canned foods with high liquid content. You can also select high-calorie, foods that aren’t as likely to provoke thirst, such as peanut butter, jelly, food bars, and trail mix.
Don’t forget water. Recommendations for water storage include ½ gallon to 1 gallon for drinking per person per day with an additional ½ gallon for personal hygiene and dishwashing.
You can read more about emergency food storage basics in our Food Storage for Emergency Guide here. Our canning website has more helpful information on canning and food preservation. Our goal is to provide home canning resources so that your experience is satisfying and assures you that the food you preserve at home is safe and of the highest quality possible.
You can also take our Preserve the Harvest online canning course to brush up on your food preserving skills or learn some new ones.
Thanks!
The USU Extension Food Preservation Team
The links should work. In fact, I downloaded the 120 page Food Storage Guide and it is wonderful.
** For all you “canners” out there ( I know there are a few of you), check out this site: 100 Delicious Canning Recipes You Have To Try
** So, although I have collected several pieces of cast iron, I have yet to cook in it. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal and I keep collecting information like this: How to Cook Anything in a Dutch Oven. This is pretty comprehensive.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
I continue to collect tomatoes as they ripen. I have about a dozen pint jars of tomato sauce. Yes, you can buy them same tomato sauce for about $.85 so it is totally NOT worth it to grown and can them yourself.!!! But, I look at gardening as a giant learning curve that I’m slowly climbing year after year. Plus, I LOVE the taste of ripe tomatoes, right from the garden. Sooooo good!!!
I think I have at least 9 zucchini plants and have not had one zucchini. Are they too crowded? Is it too hot? Are they not getting pollinated? And now I’m battling powdery mildew.
I pulled out all the beans. They were so infested with spider mites they were unsalvageable. I replanted two empty bags with beans and am just waiting for them to sprout.
I think I got maybe 4 cucumbers before the heat set in, and those plants have spider mites as well. Evil little devils.
I think this week I’ll harvest all the potatoes. Why not?
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: dry beans
Make sure you have a variety of dry beans. Without animal sources to provide protein in your diet, beans step up and fill in the deficiency. Combined with grains or other beans, they are your source for protein.
There are two ways to cook beans:
1. Overnight soak – Soak beans for 8 hours or overnight. Drain and discard the water, and rinse the beans. This method is better than no soaking, but it doesn’t remove the complex sugars as well as the short-soak/boil method.
2. Short-soak/boal method – Boil beans in water for 3 minutes. Cover and set aside for an hour. Drain and discard the water and rinse the beans. This method reduces hard to digest complex sugars by 80%. This cuts down on intestinal gas.
Either way, after soaking cook beans in fresh water. Use 3-4 c. water for each cup of dry beans. Don’t add salt or any flavors until the beans are cooked.
1 c. dry beans = 2 1/2 c. cooked beans
Old Beans? I think if we have to dig out our stored beans, we’re going to find some of them are VERY old!!! As beans age, the skin becomes tough and the beans will not soak up the water. Just crack them. You can use a grinder on the largest setting, or use a blender with a pulse button, or put several cups of beans in a bag and smack them with the side of a hammer.
Don’t mix old beans with new beans.
MISC. PURCHASE: – gasoline
Consider getting a 5 gallon can and filling it with gasoline.
Use an approved safety can. Avoid glass or plastic bottles. Leave some room in the container for expansion.
Store gasoline in a detached shed or garage, at least 50 feet away from ignition sources. Keep it away from your house, open flames, or direct sunlight.
Here are some other tips from Exxon: Gasoline Safety and Fuel Storage Tips | Exxon and Mobil
When we decided to do this, our thoughts were that if we needed to evacuate, we wanted to make sure we had gas! We try to rotate the gas each 6 months. We fill our tanks with stored gas, then refill the containers.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES:
Baked Beans
From The Pioneer Cookbook by Miriam Barton
2 c. navy or great northern beans – soak and rinse (see directions above). Then cook in water over medium heat for 1-2 hours until tender.
Preheat oven to 325˚.
Scoop beans into a large baking dish, reserving the broth and add:
1/4 lb bacon diced
1 onion finely chopped
3 TB molasses
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/2 c. ketchup
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. brown sugar
Cover and bake 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more bean broth if needed to keep the beans saucy.
Claudine’s Baked Beans
From Favorite Recipes, Winchester Ward Relief Society
For those of you who don’t particularly want to soak beans.
2 28-oz cans Bush’s pork ‘n’ beans
1/2 lb. cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. catsup
1 TB yellow mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Mix all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover, stir frequently for 1 hour.
Red Beans and Rice
From The Pioneer Cookbook by Miriam Barton
Great to cook after a ham dinner.
1 lb. dried kidney beans – soaked and rinsed
4 c. water
ham bone (optional)
1 onion diced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 green or red chili pepper, stem and seeds removed, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp salt
Add all ingredients in a large stockpot. Cover and cook on medium heat for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally.
1 1/2 c. dried rice
Stir in for the last 30 minutes. Add more water if it cooks out before the rice is soft. Before serving, remove the ham bone.
Marti
